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OpenLeaks — 'A New WikiLeaks'

Flixie writes "Swedish newspaper dagens Nyheter reports: '...[S]everal key figures behind the website that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive governmental, corporate, organizational or religious documents have resigned in protest against the controversial leader Julian Assange only to launch a new service for the so-called whistleblowers. The goal: to leak sensitive information to the public."

59 of 538 comments (clear)

  1. Assange gets arrested. by thehostiles · · Score: 5, Informative

    And ten more shall take his place

    1. Re:Assange gets arrested. by PhxBlue · · Score: 5, Informative

      The new site doesn't appear to have anything to do with Assange's arrest. It's more about a disagreement regarding how to handle leaked information. OpenLeaks is looking to provide information to interested parties, e.g., journalists, whereas WikiLeaks is there to disseminate the information to everyone.

      --
      !#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
    2. Re:Assange gets arrested. by icebike · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wasn't there some aspect of Assange not playing well with others too?

      That's what SHE said.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    3. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why are journalists a special protected class in your opinion? Would they release information without filtering it? What if they were pressured to not release it by a government? Or what if it exposes the wrongdoing of the corporation that owns the journalists?

      The ideal journalist will disseminate the information to everyone anyway, why add the extra step?

    4. Re:Assange gets arrested. by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Unlike WikiLeaks, Openleaks will not receive and publish information directly for the public eye.

      Ah. So, it's not really "open" at all then. Following the classic tactic of naming your product/service exactly what it's not (I'm looking at you, Great Quality).

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    5. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, actually SHE said he was playing TOO well with others.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:Assange gets arrested. by poetmatt · · Score: 3, Funny

      as someone else pointed out, that means it's not an open site. it's a bunch of useless bullshit phrases then. May as well have called it opencloudleaks to cram in more buzzwords.

    7. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      *sigh*

      Who, please name ONE SINGLE person who got killed! One would do.

      Repeating spin over and over is not making it any more correct.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re:Assange gets arrested. by spynode · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's as if you know him personally. Do you have more first hand experience with controversial personalities?

    9. Re:Assange gets arrested. by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Exactly. In an ideal situation, middlemen aren't needed. In practice, those who leak don't have the resources or know-how to give the information directly to the public.

      In the past, before the web, leakers had to talk to journalists because there was no alternative to reach the masses, even though journalists have never been paragons of objectivity.

      Wikileaks today is much better than talking to a professional journalist, because what it publishes is closer to the raw leaked information, and it doesn't care about market share or editorial slant like newspapers do.

      But wikileaks is still a middleman. If there was simple free software that any would-be leaker (nongeek) could use to put raw information directly and untraceably on the web, then the ideal would be one step closer.

    10. Re:Assange gets arrested. by pz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why are journalists a special protected class in your opinion? Would they release information without filtering it? What if they were pressured to not release it by a government? Or what if it exposes the wrongdoing of the corporation that owns the journalists?

      The ideal journalist will disseminate the information to everyone anyway, why add the extra step?

      Two simple factors (I'm actually quite surprised that a thinking person wouldn't already realise this): first, not everyone can write, so not all of the material you would want disseminated would be easy to read. Second, journalists do more than just copy, they gather potentially disparate facts, distill them, drop irrelevant cruft, and give the readers the good parts.

      Seriously, have you read all of the thousands of recently leaked cables? Do you have any desire to whatsoever? Personally, I'd rather pay a professional reporter to do that for me, and filter out what is important and what is not. I'll especially pay him if he can write well.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    11. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Magic5Ball · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When was the last time that WikiLeaks had a Wiki to which the public could contribute context or analysis?

      --
      There are 1.1... kinds of people.
    12. Re:Assange gets arrested. by skyride · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The main is sitting in custody with a crime he probably didn't commit as an excuse, I'd say that any paranoia he has is pretty darn well justified.

    13. Re:Assange gets arrested. by alchemy101 · · Score: 5, Informative

      2008 - Julius Baer (Swiss Bank), Scientology (US but not govenrment), BNP member list (UK) + many more.

      2009 - Petrogate recordings (Peruvian Government and Business), Barcaly Bank documents (UK), Natanz Nuclear accident report (Iran), Kaupthing bank (iceland), Australian censor list (Australia) + many many more.

      2010 - Loveparade 2010 Duisburg planning documents (Germany)

      That's a fair bit over a short period.

    14. Re:Assange gets arrested. by hedwards · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's a bullshit explanation. If it were really true, there'd be no reason not to release the identity as the terrorist or whoever would already know who they are and the people around them. The fact that they haven't bothered to cite a single instance is a pretty good indication that they've got bupkiss and are just talking out of their asses.

      Additionally, if the information were really that sensitive, why on Earth did the US government not tell Wikileaks what legitimately needed to be redacted? Seems if the information is that dangerous that they ought to be willing to play ball. Seeing as how they couldn't prevent it from getting to the public at that point.

    15. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Ihmhi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The only difference between what you see from Wikileaks and the raw data is that the Wikileaks version has gone through "harm prevention".

      Here's a hypothetical example. The U.S. federal government gets a tip about a crime ring from someone. The government tramples all over the rights of the crime ring - therein is the leak-worthy material. Do you include the name of the person who tipped off the feds? I think there is a point where leaking certain information is irresponsible, especially when it interferes with an individual's (but not a government's) privacy and/or safety.

      WL is, IMO, doing their job in the most responsible way possible - they make efforts to protect the privacy and safety of individuals and prevent any collateral damage.

    16. Re:Assange gets arrested. by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Misleading.

      The current claim is that the leaks are killing informants or people mentioned in leaks. What Assange is talking about is people killed as a result of the government clamping down on protests based on information in the leaks. In other words, if people would have kept quiet about the information contained in the leaks, instead of protesting, no one would have died.

      So the score is that no one has yet to die because information was leaked. Going for second order effects to blame Assange is kinda silly.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    17. Re:Assange gets arrested. by raddan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not just the leakers who don't have the know-how, it's the consumers. In an ideal situation, people would 1) have the time to read volumes of leaked information, 2) connect the dots, and 3) understand what that means. Since almost no one except journalists meet those criteria, I think, yeah, journalists still have a place in this world.

      There's more information now-- if anything, we need them more. Google has hardly killed librarians. Why should Wikileaks kill journalism?

      There's a HUGE difference between information and understanding.

    18. Re:Assange gets arrested. by icebraining · · Score: 5, Informative

      They weren't killed because they were informants or whatever and got "burned".

      They were killed because they revolted against a corrupt dictatorship.

      The leak exposed massive corruption by Daniel Arap Moi, and the Kenyan people sat up and took notice. In the ensuing elections, in which corruption became a major issue, violence swept the country. "1,300 people were eventually killed, and 350,000 were displaced. That was a result of our leak," says Assange. It's a chilling statistic, but then he states: "On the other hand, the Kenyan people had a right to that information and 40,000 children a year die of malaria in Kenya. And many more die of money being pulled out of Kenya, and as a result of the Kenyan shilling being debased."

      This wasn't Wikileaks "fault", this was a fight of a people against tyranny, who willingly decided to risk their lives to fight it.
      If anything, we the so called "first world" countries are at fault for ignoring this people's struggle.

    19. Re:Assange gets arrested. by martin-boundary · · Score: 3, Insightful
      When the raw data is available to everyone, nobody can stop you from paying a professional of your choice to sift through the raw data and summarize it to your liking.

      When the raw data is only accessible to certain professionals who summarize it for the public, then you can't pay a professional of your choice to sift through the data and summarize it for you, because they'll only have the summaries to work with.

    20. Re:Assange gets arrested. by horza · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In one film, I don't remember which, the chief editor of the newspaper says to his staff "Our job isn't to break the story first. We're never going to beat the television. Our job is to give the story behind the story."

      A good journalist will always have his place. He's prepared to do the legwork that the armchair pundit isn't, checking facts and talking to people to find their motivations. Here on Slashdot people are quite happy to paste from Wikipedia as 'evidence'. A good journalist will spot an anomaly, and if necessary jump in the car and trawl through paper archives to see if the digital one is actually correct or has been altered.

      Of course there will be bad journalists, like Gizmondo who can't tell the difference between and EveryDNS and EasyDNS, but the good ones are worth their weight in gold. It's the reason people will happily subscribe to the FT and the Economist, yet The Times has died an online death.

      Raw data has become more readily available to the public, but hopefully it will inspire more people to write quality articles as well as add to the armory of those already in the business.

      Phillip.

    21. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wikileaks did just as you asked, released the information to professional reporters.

      Right now those professional reporters are spending 99% of their time on the subject discussing NOT what was in the leaks, but rather calling Assange a terrorist, irresponsible, appearing on TV "news" shows talking about how terrible he is, how he's a criminal, a traitor, calling for his arrest, for wikileaks to be stopped, and in some cases even calling for his death.

      Yeah, those professional reporters - a trustworthy lot.

      --
      This space available.
  2. Horrible Timing... by Haedrian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just as the US government, and a bunch of private companies (perhaps guided by the US government) are attempting to destroy wikileaks?

    I don't know, with all the trouble going on - Assange getting arrested, sites getting DDOSed, more people getting arrested for DDOSsing... I think that now is defentally not the best time for this. Public sympathy is too erratic at the moment - adding more sites like that will only make the situation worse.

    When its one site, its an anomaly - what's next, a law to prevent similar sites? If they keep popping up like mushrooms, there's going to be less "Please stop letting them get funds" and more "We classify protecting the identity of leakers to be a terrorist act.. bla bla bla"

    1. Re:Horrible Timing... by freedumb2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I disagree, I think it is the perfect time for another institution like Wikileaks. The best defense is attack. Already the U.S. and other governments are starting to show their true face concerning free speech. This is starting to look like a real litmus test. Whatever is in the leaked documents is secondary at this point. Much more important is to see how far governments are willing to surpress anyone that they see as a potential danger to their power structures. And this war is fought pretty much in the open, for everyone to see. Maybe this is going to play out without much drama, maybe not. Interesting times nevertheless.

    2. Re:Horrible Timing... by b4dc0d3r · · Score: 5, Insightful

      http://comixed.memebase.com/2010/12/08/4-koma-comic-strip-an-issue-of-debate/

      When an I Can Has Cheezeburger site explains the entire Obama administration, government view of free speech vs. censorship, and current political climate in 3 panels something is wrong.

      Yeah some details didn't need to be leaked. But most did. The military calls this "collateral damage" and minimizes it compared to the success of hitting a target. Civilians are apparently held to a different standard because we haven't been trained how to properly attack and cover up.

  3. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by nomadic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wikileaks has credibility; Assange does not. I mean, he told a reporter that he was too busy to talk to them because he "too busy ending two wars." That kind of narcissism is profoundly stupid.

  4. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by igreaterthanu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He gets himself on the news and he stays there. What good is a leak site if after the first leak it disappears from the public eye and any remaining data will miraculously disappear along with all the people that work for it who have "accidents"?

    --
    I dream of a nation where a man is not judged by his skin color but by an number assigned by a credit rating agency.
  5. coming soon iLeaks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    and VisualLeaks, DynamicLeaks, and TeenLeaks (oh wait that one already exists) Seriously, anyone else bothered by the predictability of made up internet words.

    1. Re:coming soon iLeaks by cyber-vandal · · Score: 4, Funny

      And exposing vegetable-related cover-ups - WikiLeeks.

    2. Re:coming soon iLeaks by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Let's see if they try to arrest the founder of Wookieleaks.

      We might get to see arms ripped off!

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  6. Re:One for all.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why should moral responsiblity == solidarity?

    Isn't that one of the problems with many movements, the leaders (w/ all of their faults) are often deified and thus are become easy targets for the opposition. Of course you can argue vaguely about a greater good or the lesser evil, but why not strive for an organization that isn't about a person, but is about an ideal? Do we always have to have egomanics representing a cause?

  7. CIA trick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And who's to say that they really are former Wikileaks members, and not agents of the CIA seeking to intercept leaks and trace them back to the source?
    *dons tinfoil hat*

  8. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Credibility means fairly little to the organization organizing the leaks - what matters are the outlets.

    I think Wikileaks got it exactly right this time, using some of the most respected newspapers in the world to filter and disseminate the cables, rather than attempting to dump them directly. Sure, they got stick from the usual suspects, but the reality is that nobody is questioning the credibility of the leaks themselves: if The Guardian posts a cable reporting that, to use a real example, defense contractor Dyncorp organizes child rape parties for Afghan warlords in order to close the sale, and the US government's complicity in covering it up, we pretty much accept it, in a way less likely to happen if it's some random voice on the Internet posting what they claim is a cable.

    OpenLeaks is made up of people who know this. I don't think they'll have an issue.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  9. Protection by symes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Unlike WikiLeaks, Openleaks will not receive and publish information directly for the public eye. Instead, other organizations will access the Openleaks system and in turn, present their audience with the material. Documents will be processed and published by various collaborating organizations.

    Who are these other organisations? Surely one of advantage of wikileaks is that leakers are separate from publication. Under Openleak's nebulous "other organisations" leakers might feel more, rather than less, vulnerable. Or am I wrong?

  10. How is this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How is this more transparent then WikiLeaks when the public can't even see the information when it finally IS released?

  11. Double cross? by Albinoman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The first thing that came to my mind is that it's a new site is being set up to catch whistle blowers. Leak occasional trivial documents to snare the big ones. I don't condone any of this but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

    1. Re:Double cross? by grcumb · · Score: 4, Funny

      And this is why these leak sites should use TOR. And not TOR to Public Internet. TOR to TOR.

      Too complex. TOR to TOR is a Traveling Salesman problem.

      TOR to TOR. Salesman. Get it?

      ...

      ...

      *sigh*

      All right, don't get up. I'll show myself out....

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  12. oh gee. then they are fools. by unity100 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    so, they will leak the information to journalists. the people that any notable ones from among them would be in the employ of established media conglomerates, which are subject to pressure of politicians and corporations ?

    i think the fact that there has been no major leak that is detrimental to a government or a company has occurred since watergate, escapes these people. werent there any scoops ? werent there any brave journalists to handle them ? surely. why didnt anything in the scale of watergate came up ?

    information must be provided to EVERYONE. we are the people, we are the owners of these governments and countries. we have the right to see them first hand. not anyone else, regardless of their profession.

    by the way, journalists are people too, from among us. if you release it to us, you release it to everyone.

    1. Re:oh gee. then they are fools. by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      by the way, journalists are people too, from among us. if you release it to us, you release it to everyone.

      And because you release it to everyone, you release it to opposing factions who use the intelligence contained. Well done. That'll help everyone. And it'll do a real wonder for whistleblowers to come.

      Fun thing about Cablegate - it came about because of an increased inter-agency sharing of intel. That's more eyes seeing more information. While the obvious intent is to make intel agencies more effective (something Assange aspires to prevent), but it put information in front of more sets of eyes. After Manning's mismanagement of that opportunity, we now have the knee-jerk reaction of clamping down on that information. Less eyes. Less whistleblowers.

      And of course, plenty of material for politicians to rabble-rouse with.

    2. Re:oh gee. then they are fools. by unity100 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, yes. It's all detrimental. The question is whether the problem being uncovered is more important than the damage done outing detrimental information.

      that doesnt work. private interests and government will ALWAYS say there are big things at stake, and prevent anything from being published. this is what happened up till today, and the only reason we are discovering these stuff is because some people decided governments corporations and news outlets shouldnt decide what is worth it and what is not.

  13. Re:Sounds good to me by santax · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, his inflated ego is what got wikileaks on the map. I sort of believe we need someone as bold as him.

  14. Re:Wrong name! by ISoldat53 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wilileaks sounds like an old man's disease.

  15. So the plan is to pass the raw data to... by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...politically-correct organizations who will decide what we need to see and what would "confuse" us.

    Bugger that. Release all of the raw data to the public or you're no better than Fox News and Huffington Post.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  16. Misleading summary by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Informative
    What kind of a misleading summary is that? From TFA:

    Unlike WikiLeaks, Openleaks will not receive and publish information directly for the public eye. Instead, other organizations will access the Openleaks system and in turn, present their audience with the material. Documents will be processed and published by various collaborating organizations.

    So there's no leaking, only controlled information transfer to participating organizations. If I was a whistleblower, I'd worry that the serious risks I'm taking to make information available will be wasted.

  17. Re:One for all.... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do we always have to have egomanics representing a cause?

    Yes.

    1. People who aren't egomaniacs don't want to be the face of a cause.

    2. Causes aren't successful without faces attached to them.

    Thus, causes that become popular will always have egomaniacs leading them. Even Gandhi was a bit of an egomaniac, though less reprehensibly than most.

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  18. what responsibility ? by unity100 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    the responsibility of censoring information that u.s. or other governments dont want published ?

    wikileaks already has removed names from those leaks. there isnt any sensitive info in them in regard to 'people's lives'.

    and what will these people do ? release information to NEWS outlets. 90% of news outlets in usa are owned by parent corporations of 4 movie studios. and they are the very corporations who are also pressurizing and villifying wikileaks.

    i fail to see your logic regarding 'fresh'. that seems like what we have been NOT having since watergate : journalism.

    i dont want my information censored or edited by any news corporation. i want it direct and uncensored.

  19. CounterLeaks by w0mprat · · Score: 5, Funny

    I propose a counter-wikileaks website to leak sensitive personal information to Governments and corporates. The idea is you enter all you personal information, brag about your potentially criminal behaviour, as well as spend time on the site interacting socially so the site can establish a pattern of behaviour including what you "like" etc.

    Damn.. someone beat me too it...

    --
    After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
  20. I have been calling for exactly this for years! by rAiNsT0rm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here and on Reddit, every single time a story about Wikileaks comes up I always state that as cool as Wikileaks seems it is terribly flawed overall and far too important to leave as it is... every single time I get downvoted/modded troll/whatever and everyone busts out the hate... after this last debacle people have finally opened their damn eyes and I couldn't be happier. The media is broken which is why Wikileaks is even relevant, and we all need to stand up and win the most important war of our lifetime: The War on Information. The other great thing that will come of this is that the media will see all of the potential and thirst for actual news and information and hopefully shift back to what thy should have been doing all along.

    --
    http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
  21. Press by Compaqt · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Constitution doesn't mention "journalists". It references freedom of the press:

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;...

    A press is a device for duplicating written matter. So the Constitution is recognizing the right to publish using presses (as opposed to speaking with your voice). Time passes. Huge presses are reduced to small laser printers.

    More time passes. A worldwide network for electronic publishing emerges. Anybody who cares about limits of government would say the Congress does not have the power to limit the ability to use presses (electronic or otherwise).

    And the right of the press isn't limited to any one specially-favored group that calls itself "the" press.

    --
    I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    1. Re:Press by biryokumaru · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet.

      Sometimes this statement is rather more self-evident than other times.

      --
      When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
  22. Re:Sounds good to me by petsounds · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Assange was originally a programmer; overinflated ego comes with the territory.

    It's easy to armchair quarterback Wikileaks from your computer, isn't it? Assange is taking a very real stand with very real consequences against some very nasty people working in very compromised governments. You need to be a bit insane, a bit self-important, and more than a bit strong on your convictions and courage to have a mindset that enables to think this is a logical idea. You may not like the way Assange operates, but did you see anyone else do it? No? Exactly.

  23. It still leads to greater accountability by Sparx139 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the information is available to the public, then there's a greater risk of someone crying foul about any 'tweaks' that are made to the story. Also, it also means that it isn't a he said/she said thing. 'Scientific journalism' is good because it allows different news outlets to draw their own conclusions based on the actual leak, rather then passing through a game of Chinese Whispers. For example, an Australian Labour Party power broker passed on information, tipping the US off about Julia Gillard taking over Kevin Rudd's role as PM a year before it actually happened. I've seen everything on it from condemning it as pandering to the US, to passing it off as business as usual - explaining that it's important to share information to keep diplomatic lines open.
    The fact that the leak is out there for anyone to see means that spin can be kept to a minimum at least, they can't outright lie because people will check the facts against the evidence.

    --
    Our culture doesn't get smarter, it just finds new ways of being retarded.
    1. Re:It still leads to greater accountability by TapeCutter · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Rudd is worthy of a hat tip for his public support of Assange even though some of the documets were embarrasing to him personally, Rudd blames the US for the leaks and claims Assange has done nothing wrong by publishing them. He is one of the few politicians in the world to publicly speak up for WL, another notable exeption being Putin who is reveling in the irony of lecturing the US in the basic principles of a free press. But the most suprising to me personally is ex-prime minister John Howard who has also said "Assange has done nothing wrong" by publishing the leaks.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  24. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by chrb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    you'll find that there were weapons in the group

    That's right, because the government should have the right to kill anyone who stands next to a person exercising their right to bear arms.

  25. Re:who's been put in danger ? by Cederic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1300 people dead because they refused to put up with the shit any more, as opposed to several thousand dead from malaria and the country's resources being misused.

    Was the leak a good or bad thing? Did it lead to 1300 deaths or save a few thousand more in the long term?

    This isn't playschool, there isn't a clear good and bad, just shades of grey and complicated trade-offs.

  26. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by RazorSharp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's the attitude that got George W. Bush elected. "This Gore guy really sounds like he knows what he's talking about, and this Bush guy looks confused, but Gore keeps sighing and being an asshole and berating poor Bush. I'm not voting for Gore, I'd never sit down and drink a beer with him!"

    Why is it more important to be likable than credible?

    --
    "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
  27. Re:who's been put in danger ? by makomk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh my, that evil Julian Assange. If he hadn't revealed that Kenyan politicians were horribly corrupt, the populace would've just voted for the right guy and the incumbent wouldn't have had to blatantly rig the elections to stay in power, causing mass rioting. It's all Assange's fault for not allowing the Kenyan populace to remain in blissful ignorance of just how corrupt and screwed up their political system is. The corrupt, vote-rigging politicians bear no responsibility for it whatsoever.

    Seriously, though - did you really just blame Assange and Wikileaks for that?

  28. You've been fooled by the int to enemy angle by dbIII · · Score: 3, Informative

    When people leak stuff it's not about the cool new technology that ends up in some high tech weapon. They leak about people lying, cheating and generally breaking the rules. It's not about releasing information about soldiers killing enemy forces in battle. It's about unaccountable spooks breaking dozens of laws and the charter of their organisations by torturing people to death.
    Now we've had a lot of bullshit where manipulative bastards say that anyone that says anything bad about their own side, true or not, is "giving comfort to the enemy." That's just an excuse to be able to let the dead wood say at their posts without being embarrassed by enormous fuckups. The comfort angle in this case is utter bullshit because it really does not matter if somebody does the equivalent of point at one of these things and say "haha".

  29. Missing the point by Kyusaku+Natsume · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this site is staffed by ex-Wikileaks members then Wikileaks is better without them since they didn't understand the point that Wikileaks is not about "leaks" but about accountability. A democracy without accountability is no better than a tyranny and the key to a lack of accountability in a sick democracy is the control of the mass media.

    --
    Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!